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JOHN STEVENS, 

Inventor. Statesman 




ROBERT L. STEVENS, 

President and Chief Engineer Camden 

and Amboy Railroad. 



EDWIN A. STEVENS, 

Manager Camden and Amboy Railroad. 



JOHN STEVENS AND HIS SONS 



EARLY AMERICAN ENGINEERS 



BY 



J. ELFRETH WATKINS 



DtCl81892 



Read before the Philosophical Society of Washington, May 7, 1892 



WASHINGTON : 

PRESS OF W. F. ROBERTS 
1892 



h* 










BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 



JOHN STEVENS AND HIS SONS. 
Earey American Engineers. 

Biographies are too often eulogies. Yet it seems impossible to trace the 
career of John Stevens and of his sons (Robert Livingston and Edwin Au- 
gustus) without, apparently at least, joining the ranks of the hero worship- 
ers — for I know of no other instance where a father and his sons have left 
behind them such a remarkable record of usefulness. 

JOHN STEVENS. 

John Stevens, the father, who was among the greatest engineers and 
naval architects living at the end of the last century, was born in New York 
of English lineage in 1749. He was graduated at King's College (now 
Columbia) 1768: was admitted to the New York bar in 1771 : was treasurer 
of New Jersey during the active period of the Revolutionary War : and 
in the succeeding sixty years resided in New York and on his estate in 
Hoboken. 

"Throughout this long period he labored continuously for the introduc- 
tion and application of steam to navigation and to railroad locomotion." 

John Stevens' attention was first attracted to steam-boat navigation 
while driving along the banks of the Delaware River near Burlington, N. 
J., when he saw in 1787, John Fitch's steam-boat pass up the river against 
the tide. His interest was so much excited that he followed the boat to 
its landing, where he examined the engines and the mechanism of the 
pushing paddles carefully. "From that hour he became a thoroughly 
excited and unwearied experimenter in the application of steam to loco- 
motion." It was in this year that the Legislature of New York granted 
to Fitch the exclusive right to navigate the waters of that State with 
steam propelled vessels. 

It was on the petition of John Stevens that the patent law of 10th April, 
1790 — the foundation of the American patent system — was framed. (See 
Journal of House of Representatives, p. 30.) 

"In 1792, he took out patents for propelling vessels by steam-pumps, 
modified from the original steam-pumps of Savary. He made many 
experiments on different modes of propulsion by steam, having as his 
associates the elder Brunei, constructer of the Thames Tunnel, Chancellor 
Robert L. Livingston, his brother-in-law, and Nicholas J. Roosevelt. In 
179S he constructed a steam-boat that navigated the Hudson. 

[Note.— The Author desires to acknowledge his indebtedness to Francis r B. Stevens, 
D. Eng., of Hoboken, N. J., without whose valuable assistance this paper would not 
have been written.] 



"He made the first practical application of steam to the screw-propeller 
in 1804 ; and although the screw-propeller did not come into use until 
thirty-five years afterwards, his engine and screw, which are still preserved, 
show the correctness of his ideas, as well as the imperfection of the 
workmanship of that period that prevented commercial success. His 
short four-bladed screw has survived many forms afterwards tried. 

"He patented the multi-tubular boiler in the United States, 1803 ; in 
England, 1805 ; established the first steam ferry in the world, between 
New York and Hoboken, October n, 181 1, with the 'Juliana.' (See 
Valentine's Annals of the City of New York). 

"In 1812 (five years before the commencement of work on the Erie Canal) 
he addressed a memoir to the New York State Commission, urging the 
immediate construction of a railroad instead of a canal. This memoir with 
the adverse report of the Commissioners (De Witt Clinton, Gouverneur 
Morris, and Chancellor Livingston), was published at the time. At the 
date of this memoir, although railroads for carrying coal had been in use 
in England for upwards of two hundred years, there was not a steam 
locomotive or passenger car in use in the world. His plans and estimates 
were definite, and after the introduction of railroads their accuracy was 
proven."* 

This pamphlet, which was entitled ' ' Documents Tending to Prove the 
Superior Advantages of Railways and Steam Carriages over Canal Naviga- 
tion," entitled him, even if he had failed, as he did not, in the field of 
invention, to be held in grateful remembrance by his countrymen for his 
broad and statesmanlike views, keen perception, ardent patriotism, and a 
demonstration that was prophetic in its accuracy. 

In 18 13 John Stevens designed an iron clad vessel with a "saucer- 
shaped ' ' hull which was to be plated with iron and to carry a heavy bat- 
tery. This vessel was designed to be secured to a swivel which was to be 
held in position by an anchor in the channel of the stream to be defended. 
Screw-propellers driven by steam engines were to be placed beneath the 
vessel (in order that they would be safe from injury by shot), and con- 
nected with the machinery which was arranged to cause the vessel to be 
rapidly revolved about the swivel in its centre. Each gun was to be fired 
as it was brought into line and was to be reloaded before it came around 
again. This was an early embodiment of the "monitor" principle. It 
was the first iron-clad ever designed. 

The South Carolina Railroad (commenced in 1S29) which when com- 
pleted in 1832 was the longest railway in the world, was constructed upon 
his plans as laid down twenty years before. 

Before 181 2, in connection with his son Robert, he had made steam-boat 
navigation on the Delaware a commercial success. Shortly afterward he 
became connected with the famous Union Line, which controlled the 
transportation of merchandise and passengers between Philadelphia and 
New York for many years. 

* Quotations in this and the preceding paragraphs are from the inscription on the 
M< dallion Porl rail <>f John Stevens in the U. s. National Museum, Washington. 



5 

Colonel Stevens was anxious to put his recommendations of 1812 into 
practice. In 18 15 lie obtained a charter from the State of New Jersey "to 
build a railroad from the the River Delaware, near Trenton, to the River 
Raritan, near New Brunswick." This was undoubtedly the earliest rail- 
road charter granted in America ; but no tangible result followed, because 
the scheme was regarded as wild and visionary. The introduction of the 
steam-boat, coupled with the success of the Duke of Bridgewater in the 
introduction of canals abroad, had made them more popular with capital- 
ists than the untried railroad, and no money could be raised for that 
undertaking. 

FIRST CHARTER OF THE PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD. 

His interest in the subject of internal communication did not flag on 
account of this failure, for in 1823, through his exertion, acts were passed 
by the Legislature of Pennsylvania for the incorporation of "The Presi- 
dent, Directors and Company of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company" 
"to make, erect and establish a railroad on the route laid out (from Phila- 
delphia to Columbia, in Lancaster county,) to be constructed on the plan 
and under the superintendence and direction of the said John Stevens ' ' * 
Among the incorporators were Stephen Girard and Horace Binney. 

Three years later (1826) Colonel Stevens, then seventy-six years old, 
constructed at his own expense, a locomotive with a multi-tubular boiler, 
which he operated for several years on a circular track on his estate at 
Hoboken, carrying half a dozen people at a speed of over 12 miles an 
hour. A model of this4ocomotive together with the original multi-tubu- 
lar boiler which formed a part of it, is preserved in the U. S. National 
Museum. This was the first locomotive in America driven by steam upon 
a track of which there is reliable record. 

He died March 6, 1838, aged 89 years. He saw the first steam engine 
erected on the Western Continent, at Belleville, N. J. During his life- 
time Watt perfected the stationary low pressure condensing steam engine. 
Within his memory the Duke of Bridgewater inaugurated the canal 
system of Great Britain: Trevithick developed the high pressure steam 
engine into a commercial success and successfully applied it to the loco- 
motive : Nelson won the Naval battle of Trafalgar : Fulton introduced 
steam navigation on the Hudson — steam-boats began to ply on the Missis- 
sippi and the Lakes : Captain Rogers made the first experimental steam 
voyage across the Atlantic with the " Savannah :" Steam was introduced 
into all the principal navies of the world : George and Robert Stephen- 
son made their fame as locomotive constructors, and the railway systems 
at home and abroad were organized. Seven years before his death the 
locomotive was put upon the Camden and Amboy Railway connecting 
New York and Philadelphia, and on the first links of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad, in advocating the construction of both of which railroads he 
took an active part twenty years before. On the day of his death the 

* See Sec. 6, p. 252, L,aws of Pennsylvania 1823. 



" Great Western " lay in the Thames receiving her finishing touches pre- 
paratory to making the initial voyage of the pioneer Trans- Atlantic steam- 
ship line between England and New York. 

He was the copatriot of Washington — during the New Jersey campaigns: 
the correspondent of Barlow and Franklin : Chancellor Livingston (after 
whom his second son was named) was his brother-in-law : and although he 
was the rival of Fulton in introducing the steam-boat in America, they 
had been warm friends for several years before the latter's death in 1815. 

Charles King, President of the Columbia College, writing of him in 
1852 says : " Born to affluence, his whole life was devoted to experiments, 
at his own cost, for the common good. He was a thoroughly excited and 
an unwearied experimenter in the application of steam to locomotion 
on the water, and subsequently on the land. Time has vindicated his 
claim to the character of a far-seeing, accurate, and skillful, practical 
experimentalist and inventor. The thinker was ahead of his age." 

The careers of the sons are closely interwoven with his. 

ROBERT LIVINGSTON STEVENvS. 

Robert Livingston Stevens was born October 18, 1787. In 1804 he 
assisted his father in the construction of the first twin screw steam-boat, 
being then only seventeen years old. He took the ' ' Phcenix ' ' from 
New York to Philadelphia by sea in June, 180S. The "Phoenix" was 
the first steam-boat to navigate the ocean. At the death of Fulton, 1815, 
the speed of steam-boats on the Hudson was under 7 miles an hour. The 
"Philadelphia", built by Robert L. Stevens, had a speed of 8 miles. 
Fie succeeded in increasing the speed of each successive steam-boat of the 
many that he built until in 1832 the " North America ", the finest boat of 
her time, attained 15 miles. For 25 years after 1815 he stood at the head 
of his profession as a constructer of steam-vessels. In 1821 he originated 
the form of ferry-boats and ferry-slips, now in general use, constructing 
the ferry-slips with spring piling and fenders. In 181 8 he invented the 
cam board cut off, and applied it to the steam-boat " Philadelphia," on the 
Delaware : this being the first application of the expansive action of 
steam to navigation.. — In 1821 he adopted the working (or walking beam) 
and improved it by making it of wrought iron strap with a cast iron 
centre : in 1829 he adopted the shape now universally used in this country 
He invented the split water wheel in 1826, and in 1831 the bal- 
ance-valve, which is now always used on the beam engine. He 
first placed the boilers on the wheel-guards over the water : he 
adopted the Stevens' cut off, and finally left the American working beam 
(or walking beam) engine in its present form. Beginning with a pressure 
of 2 pounds to the square inch he increased the strength of his boilers 
until 50 pounds could be safely carried. He made the first marine tubular 
boiler in [831. lie reduced the vibration of the hull and added greatly 
to the strength by the overhead truss frame of masts and rods now used. 



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Early in October, 1830, and shortly after the surveys of the Camden 
and Amboy Railroad were completed, Robert L. Stevens, who was Presi- 
dent and Chief Engineer of that road, sailed for England to order a 
locomotive and iron rails. At that time no rolling mill in America could 
roll T rails. 

Robert Stevens advocated the use of an all iron rail in preference to the 
wooden rail or stone stringer plated with strap iron, then in use on one 
or two short American railroads. At his suggestion the Board of Direc- 
tors of the Camden and Amboy railroad passed a special resolution 
authorizing him to obtain the rails he advocated. 

During the voyage to Liverpool he whiled away the hours on shipboard 
by whittling thin wood into shapes of imaginary rail-sections until he 
finally decided which one was best suited to the needs of the new road. 

He was familiar with the Birkenshaw rail with which the best English 
roads were then being laid, but he saw that, as it required an expensive 
chair to hold it in place, it was not adapted to our Country, where metal 
workers were scarce and iron was dear. He added the base to the T rail, 
.(see plate — fac-simile of Specification — Nov. 26, 1830) dispensing with the 
chair. He also designed the " hook-headed " spike (which is substan- 
tially the railroad spike of to-day) and the "iron tongue/ 1 ', (which has been 
developed into the fish-bar), and the bolts and nuts tp complete the joint. 

Mr. Stevens neglected to obtain a patent for these inventions, although 
urged to do so by Mr. F. B. Ogden, American Consul at Liverpool, and the 
credit of being the inventor of the American Rail was for a time claimed 
for others, but the evidence * brought forward in late years fully establishes 
the fact that he was the originator of the American system of railway 
construction. The " Stevens rail " gradually found favor in America — 
all roads being relaid with it as the original T or strap rail became worn out. 

Sixty years have elapsed since this rail was adopted by the Camden 
and Amboy Company, and with the exception of slight alterations in the 
proportions incident to increased weight, no radical change has been 
made in the "Stevens rail," which is now in use on every railroad in 
America. Many improvements have been made in the joint fixture but 
the "tongue " or fish plate improved into the angle splice bar is in gen- 
eral use, and nothing has yet been found to take the place of the "hook- 
headed ' ' railroad spike which Robert Stevens then designed. 

Mr. Stevens divided his time while abroad between arranging for the 
manufacture of track material and examining the English locomotives 
that were being constructed or had been in service. 

A year had elapsed since the opening of the Liverpool and Manchester 
Railway, and the English mechanics had not been idle. The " Rocket," 

* On July 16, 1 831 Mr. Ogden wrote Mr. Stevens from Liverpool as follows : 
" The price of iron remains about the same as when you were here and I do not 
think there would be much difference in any future contract. It would make considera- 
ble however if you would have the rails of unequal lengths, say from 10 to 16 feet, and 
it appears to me to be of little importance that the joints shonld always be opposite to 
each other. Viguoles has laid dowa his road in that way, the rail remarkably well 
executed on your pattern, (like the pieces I sent out to you) but made lighter and is 
very much pleased with it and says it is decidedly the best rail in use." 
















/ /*a Ma C^VU- 



7 






8 

although successful in the Rainhill contest, when put to work had shown 
many defects that Stephenson & Co. were striving to correct in subse- 
quent locomotives. 

The "Planet," built by that firm, was first tried in public December 4, 
1830, shortly after Mr. Stevens arrived in England, and at that time was 
undoubtedly the best locomotive in the world. 

Mr. Stevens was present at a trial when the "Planet" showed most 
satisfactory properties.' and he at once ordered a locomotive of similar 
construction, from the same manufacturers. This locomotive called the 
"John Bull," put in service in 1 831, is the prototype of the locomotive 
now in general use. It is now preserved at the U. S. National Museum. 

Toward the close of the War of 181 2 Robert I,. Stevens was engaged in 
making a bomb that could be fired from a cannon instead of from a mor- 
tar, in order that it might be applied to naval warfare. * He succeeded in 
producing a successful percussion shell, which was adopted by the U. S. 
Government who purchased a large quantity together with the secret of 
its construction. 

In 1850 he designed and built the "Maria," the fastest sailing vesssel 
of her day. This was the yacht that defeated the "America " in New 
York harbor a few months before the lattter won the memorable race on 
the " Solent." It was in this race that her Majesty Queen Victoria, when 
she asked her favorite skipper who was first and second in the race received 
for a reply " The ' America ' leads, there is no second." 

Many years before the laws governing the variation of resistance of 
vessels driven at excessive speeds were generally understood Robert L. 
Stevens had not only arrived at a knowledge of them but had put into 
practice those forms of least resistance — the graceful water lines which 
now distinguish the practice of the modern naval architects. 

He died at Hoboken April 20, 1356. 

Robert L. Stevens will be remembered as the greatest American 
mechanical engineer of his day — a most intelligent naval architect — 
to whom the World is indebted for the commencement of the mightiest 
revolution in the methods of modern naval warfare. 

EDWIN AUGUSTUS STEVENS. 

Edwin A. Stevens, the seventh son of Col. John Stevens, was born at 
Castle Point, Hoboken, July 28th, 1795. 

He received his engineering education from his father, and from his 
brother Robert L., his senior by eight years, and with whom he was asso- 
ciated in business partnership from his early manhood. On this account 
the individual work of the two brothers cannot always be separated, but 
it may be said that while both were men of great capacity as engineers 
and business men, the elder took the lead as an engineer, and the younger 
as a business man. 

* As it is impossible to separate the individual labors of the brothers upon armored 
ships, this portion of their biographies is appended under " The Joint Work of 
Robert I y .and Edwin A. Stevens in the introduction of Armor on Ships of War." 



The laborious and useful life of Edwin A. Stevens was occupied in the 
life-long management of his father's estate, on which the City of Hobo- 
ken now stands : in the organization, construction and operation of the 
Camden and Amboy Railroad, of which he was the active business mana- 
ger : in making improvements in steam navigation : in the great part 
taken by him in the introduction of iron armor on ships of war : and in 
devising methods of attack and defence for iron clads. 

At the age of twenty-five, by a family agreement, he was made trustee 
of the greater portion of his father's estate, including what was then the 
island, but which has since become the City of Hoboken, thus relieving 
his father, then seventy years of age, of the burden of his business cares. 
He remained at Hoboken until he was about thirty, taking care of the 
estate and assisting both his father and his brother, Robert, in their 
engineering labors. During that period he invented and patented the 
Stevens plough, which was much liked and extensively used for years. 
This gave him an extended acquaintance among the land owners of 
New Jersey that lasted for many years. 

In the latter part of the year 1825, at the age of thirty, he took charge 
of the Union Line, which then carried nearly all the passengers and 
freight between New York arid Philadelphia. The Union Line was or- 
ganized in 1820, and it consisted of steam-boats on the Raritan and Dela- 
ware, and of coaches on the turnpike between Trenton and New Bruns- 
wick. And after the year 1827, it was chiefly owned by the brothers 
Robert L., Edwin A. and John C. Stevens, Edwin remaining its business 
manager until it was merged into the Camden and Amboy Railroad in 
1832. The coaching of the Union Line surpassed anything of the kind 
ever known in the United States. Long trains of four horse coaches, at 
times amounting to thirty or forty daily awaited in line, the arrival of 
the steam-boats at each end of the turnpike, and were then drawn rapidly, 
frequently on a gallop across the state. The coaches were lighter than 
the English coach ; they were limited to ten passengers each, and many 
of the horses were thoroughbred. 

The Camden and Amboy Railroad was chartered in 1830, when Robert 
L. Stevens was made President and Engineer, and his brother Edwin, 
Treasurer and Manager ; and the great business capacity of the latter was 
then shown by the speedy organization of the company and the construc- 
tion of the road. He gathered around him as associates in the company 
the ablest lawyers of the state, by which means a timely settlement was 
made of the legal questions raised against privileges necessary for a rail- 
road, but antagonistic to what was then considered the common law of 
highways. And he selected for the work to be done, the best available 
business men, mechanics and contractors : the result being the incredi- 
bly short time in which the legal objections were met, the right of way 
secured and the road built and put in operation. 

He remained the business manager of the Camden and Amboy Railroad 
for upwards of thirty-five years, during which time the stock constantly 
appreciated in value, and no dividend was passed. 



10 

It was within this period that the American railroad system was developed, 
differing very materially from that simultaneously developed in Eng- 
land, and on the Continent of Europe — First ; in the adoption of means 
of running safely on tracks not inclosed. Secondly ; in the alteration of 
the form of passenger coaches, so as to have intercommunication between 
them. Thirdly ; in the greater simplicity and hardihood of the locomo- 
tive. Fourthly ; in the increased weight and strength of the rolling stock. 
And Fifthly ; in a better system of carrying both passengers and freight. 

In the developement of this American system Robert and Edwin 
Stevens were prominent. As engineers they invented and constructed 
many of the countless appliances found necessary ; and as business men 
they adopted those introduced on other railroads. 

During the time when his sons were being educated, Colonel Stevens 
resided in the Summer at Castle Point, Hoboken, and they were obliged to 
cross the Hudson to school and college by sail or row boats, then the only 
means of transit. This early experience on the water added to and 
directed the interest they took in after life in the improvement in steam 
navigation, and it also led to their becoming devoted yachtmen. Edwin 
was in his boyhood, when his brother Robert made his early improve- 
ments in steam navigation, but after he grew up he greatly assisted his 
brother. The most notable of his individual improvements was the air- 
tight fire room, patented by him April, 1842, (No. 2,524,) and now in use 
in all the navies of the world. 

He died in Paris, France, in 186S. 

By his will he endowed the Stevens Institute, Hoboken : the earliest, or 
among the earliest, of the technological colleges that have proved so useful. 

JOINT WORK OF ROBERT L. AND EDWIN A. STEVENS IN THE 
INTRODUCTION OF ARMOR ON SHIPS OF WAR. 

In the year 1814, and towards the close of our last war with Great 
Britain, Colonel Stevens had projected the circular iron fort moved by 
steam, previously alluded to, for the harbor of New York, and by his 
direction his son Edwin, then nineteen years of age, experimented with 
a six pounder bronze cannon fired against iron plating. This cannon is 
still retained at Castle Point. Iron armor, for the protection of the per- 
son, has been in use from prehistoric ages, but the demonstration that 
it could be applied to ships of war was made for the first time by Edwin 
A. Stevens in 1841, twenty-seven years after he had made the experiments 
for his father, and at the time when we were on the very brink of war 
with Great Britain, on account of aggressions on our Canadian frontier. 
As thick armor plate could not be made at that date, he devised a method 
of armor plating in laminae, or of plates laid over each other and riveted. 
He then made a series of experiments to determine the thickness of plat- 
ing required to resist the different sizes of balls then in use. From these 
experiments which were made at Bordeutown, New - Jersey, in the 
Summer of 1841, he made the deduction that a target of iron 4^ inches 



1 1 

thick, would resist a 64 pound shot, at that time the heaviest ball used in 
our navy. With the assistance of his brother John C, (his brother Rob- 
ert being then in Europe) he laid the results of his experiments before 
President Tyler. As the whole country was then aroused, the President 
immediately appointed a joint board composed of the ablest ordnance 
officers of the army, and of the leading officers of the navy to superin- 
tend the experiments of the Messrs. Stevens, on iron as a protection for 
war vessels, and in compliance with the request of this joint board John 
C. and Edwin A. Stevens wrote them a letter giving their views upon the 
subject of steamers for coast and harbor defense, stating that their ideas 
were principally derived from their brother Robert L. Stevens, then 
abroad. This letter, written August 13th, 1841, and before the application 
of the screw to vessels of war, can be said to embody the leading princi- 
ples of naval warfare that have since been reduced to practice. 

The army officers were Colonels Totten, Thayer and Talcott, and 
the naval ones Commodores Stewart, Perry and Smith. The targets 
4)4 inches thick made by Edwin A. Stevens were tested at Sandy Hook by 
the joint board of officers in the months of September, October and 
November, 1841. They made an elaborate report, unanimously agreeing 
that the targets fully withstood the numerous shots from the heaviest guns 
then in the service. It was upon the presentation of this report by the 
Naval Committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives that 
the act of Congress was passed, authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to 
contract with Robert L. Stevens, who had then just returned from Europe, 
for an iron clad steamer, to be "shot and shell proof." The Act is as 
follows : 

Chapter XII, (statutes of the United States at Large) April 14th, 1842, 
An Act authorizing the construction of a steamer for harbor defense. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America, that the Secretary of the Navy is hereby 
authorized to enter into contract with Robert L. Stevens for the con- 
struction of a war steamer, shot and shell proof, to be built principally 
of iron, upon the plan of said Stevens. Provided, the whole cost, includ- 
ing hull, armament, engines, boilers, and equipment, in all respects com- 
plete for service, shall not exceed the average cost of the steamers 
Missouri and Mississippi, and be it further enacted, that two hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars ($250,000), be, and the same is hereby appro- 
priated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated 
toward carrying this law into effect. 

(Approved by the President of the United States) tqhN TYLER 

It may be mentioned that this bill was reported from the Committee 
of the whole of the House of Representatives, April 7th, 1842, at the 
suggestion of Ex-President John Quincy Adams, then a member of the 
House, who characterized it as " One of pressing emergency." It passed 
the Senate unanimously, and in the House there were but thirteen dis- 
senting votes. 



12 

Upon the passage of the Act, Robert, with the assistance of his brother 
Edwin, commenced immediately to plan and construct the vessel. He 
built a dry-dock for it at Hoboken, and proceeded rapidly with the work. 

At the date of the passage of this Act of Congress there had been 
but little change in the power of guns from those used by Nelson at the 
battle of Trafalgar in 1805, or on our frigates in the war of 1812. But 
when Commmodore R. F. Stockton after the failure of his first gun, 
February 28th, 1844, succeeded in having constructed in England, a 
wrought iron gun throwing a round shot, that pierced a target 4^ inches 
thick, Robert Stevens altered his plans, increasing the thickness of the 
armor, and the size of the vessel that he had contracted to build "shot 
and shell proof," and then began in the great navies of the World, the 
long drawn out battle between gun and armor, a contest that by the 
intervention of other methods, may never be decided. When more 
powerful guns were introduced, either at home or abroad, other alterations 
were made thus causing interminable interruptions of the work, many 
long delays, and an increase of expenditures far beyond that provided 
for by the Act of Congress. Dying in 1856, five years before our Civil 
War, he left the vessel unfinished in the basin at Hoboken, but with 
all the plating on and with the twin-screw engines and the boilers, 
having 876 square feet of grate surface, in their positions. . 

This vessel was 410 feet long, 45 feet beam inside of the armor shelf, 
with the deck two feet above the water, and was similar in these respects 
to the Monitor class of vessels built six years afterwards by Ericsson, 
but differing in having a square and immovable turret, instead of a cir- 
cular and movable one. 

During the Crimean War, in 1855, the French Government built three 
small vessels protected by thin armor, this being the first use of iron 
clads in naval warfare. 

It is significant that on the "Warrior," the first English iron ciad, and 
on the French Frigate " Gloire," both built in i860, eighteen years after 
the demonstration of Edwin A. Stevens at Sandy Hook, and on the 
"Monitor," built in 1862, the thickness of the armor adopted was that 
of his targets : namely, four and a-half inches 

At the commencement of our Civil War, and twenty years after his 
demonstration at Sandy Hook that a vessel could be protected by iron 
armor, Edwin Stevens presented to the Government a plan for com- 
pleting the " Stevens Battery " (which had been bequeathed to him by his 
brother Robert,) together with a small vessel called the " Naugatuck," 
to demonstrate the practicability of his plans. This small vessel was 
accepted by the Government and was one of the fleet that attacked 
the "Merrimac. ' ' She was a twin-screw vessel, capable of being immersed 
3 feet below her load line, so as to be nearly invisible, and of being 
raised again in 8 minutes by pumping out the immersing weight of the 
water, and of turning end for end on her centre in one minute and a 
quarter. As the plans for the modification of the Stevens Hattery em- 
bodied ideas then novel, but which have si nee been found practicable and 



13 

necessary, his offer was rejected by the Government. The "Stevens Bat- 
tery ' ' remained in the same state in which it was left at the death of 
Robert, in 1856, until after the death of Edwin, in 1868. The latter 
bequeathed it to the State of New Jersey, together with one million 
dollars for its completion. This money was spent in 1869 and 1870. 
The vessel was never launched, and in 1881 was taken to pieces and sold 
for old material. 



It may be truly said that through the labors of John Stevens and his 
sons in the field of experimental mechanics they were able to determine 
important engineering constants, of incalculable value to the marine, 
civil and military engineer. 

Their greatest achievement was to obtain definite information relating 
to the economics of engineering in the broadest sense. 

Familiar with the theory of machines, as understood in their day, they 
were untiring in the practical demonstration of the problems presented to 
their attention. 

The laws which they investigated and the facts they placed upon record 
are now so well understood that few know, or remember, that it is to the 
Stevenses that we are indebted for most valuable data used in modern 
practice by the engineer of to-day. 

It is to be regretted that no comprehensive biography of the Stevens 
family is accessible to the student of engineering history. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



019 971 210 A 



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